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You want your resume to stand out.You know that when you apply for that job online, you’re competing with 100s of other applicants.Your resume is a needle in a haystack. What’s going to make it so special that it screams “Read Me” to the person receiving it at the other end?The thought of creating a resume that looks different appeals to you at first.You might have checked Google Images or Pinterest for “Good Resume Designs” and was amazed by those colorful resumes with the text blocks and shapes and dots and pictures.If you choose to create a resume that has got a design full of color and flair, you are headed for rejection city.Are you confused?How can a document so attractive and colorful not get noticed?There’s a simple explanation.First, I’m going to go old school.And at the end, I’ll tell you about the 21st century resume that gets noticed.The playersFirst, lets look at the journey your resume takes so you understand why a Las Vegas resume will not work.There are 3 “people” looking at your resume.#1 A software called an application tracking system (ATS)The purpose of this software is to make the recruiter’s life easier. To filter out all the candidates that it “thinks” don’t qualify for the job and leave behind the ones that do for the recruiter to look at.The ATS can be a private system invested by the company, typically used if you have to apply for the job at the company’s website.Or a third party system that you’ve come to know and love - The LinkedIns, Monsters, Indeeds that you see online.#2 A recruiterThe purpose of the recruiter is to make the hiring manager’s job easier.They may now filter out all the candidates the ATS failed to weed out, by scanning each resume for about 6 seconds and short listing the ones they think the hiring manager will like, and declining the ones they think won’t make the cut(The recruiter also filters out applicants using a more human approach - by actually speaking to candidates over a phone conversation.)#3 The hiring managerThe boss. The alpha dog. The decider of your career and income for the years to come. The one person who has the power (and budget) to give you that job.This is also the person who is on a tight schedule and the hiring process eats into their busy schedule, so they want to make sure they are spending their time with worthy candidates.After the ATS and Recruiters have filtered the 100s of applications that came down the pipeline, the handful of residual resumes that made the cut is what finally gets viewed by the person with the authority to give you the future you deserve.The approachAssuming you are applying for a job in a medium sized firm or larger, your resume is going to go through all three phases above.Logically, you’d want your resume to cut the line and drop straight into the hiring manager’s lap right?While that is possible (and we’ll get to that later on), if you are (or forced to) follow the typical application path, your resume has to past the first two tests:#1 Keep that pesky ATS “happy”#2 Catch the recruiter’s attention in that short 6 second window you haveThe best way to get your resume noticedHere it is:KEEP IT SIMPLE. KEEP IT RELEVANT.Why simple?Let’s talk about the ATS for a second.What do all machines have in common?They like to keep things boring.If you could ask a digital machine how they would like to receive information, they would probably tell you to give it to them like this:10100001110101011010100101000101101111001001001001011110101100101110101101011010An ATS is a digital software that is scanning your resume for text.The more graphics you have in there, and the more you have your text in boxes and columns and other fancy magazine-like layouts, the more you are going to confuse it.And a confused resume is a rejected resume.Now, on to the recruiter.You might be thinking, finally a human being is going to look at my resume. Some of that fancy designs I have worked so hard on is going to help.Wrong.Remember those 6 seconds?When recruiters are going through those resumes, they are in what I like to call assembly-line mode.They are recursively scanning those resumes for the keywords that were discussed between them and the hiring manager when this position was created.Recruiters are not experts in your field (compared to the hiring manager).All they know are those keywords that the hiring manager told them - “Six Sigma Green Belt” | “PMP Certified” | “10+ years experience” | “Automotive Industry experience preferred” | “French Speaking” | “Bachelors in Computer Science” - and these words resonate in their heads during those 6 seconds.If you don’t make it easy for them to catch these words in those 6 seconds - [DECLINED!]Just like an assembly line at a factory, if a resume coming down that assembly belt is out of the ordinary, it gets rejected.So, my dear job seeker, as much as an attractive resume appeals to you, and may impress your family and friends, it’s not going to work in real life.(The only exception to this is if you are applying for a job that requires creative design)Why relevant?So now that you know how a simple design will make your resume readable to an ATS and recruiter, let’s talk relevance.Once your resume is being read it must be short listed.It must contain the keywords that is relevant to the job you are applying for.I know.That stupid jargon “Keyword” again.Why does everyone keep talking about it and how do I know what they are for my industry?Remember our old friend the ATS? Another thing machines have in common, they need to be provided logic to work.The logic an ATS has to filter out resumes is by providing it keywords.As stated earlier, these keywords are discussed between the hiring manager and recruiter. They create the job description from it and feed it to the ATS.Keywords is one of many logical instructions (Algorithms) that an ATS uses.So how do you find out which keywords to target in your resume?You can use job descriptions from online jobs boards and some clever online tools called JobScan (that was written with ATS Algorithms in mind) to get your keywords.With the relevant keywords now inserted in your simple resume, it passed the first two tests with the ATS and recruiter and landed in the lap of the hiring manager.Cutting the lineYou asked for the “best” way to get your resume noticed so I explained it considering the most conventional process that people follow when applying for jobs - submitting an application online.But I would feel guilty if I did not expose how I personally had success of getting my resume noticed using some unconventional tricks that helped my cut the line ahead of my competition.During my recent job search campaign, the final step in my process was to post my resume to the hiring manager, recruiter and VP.No, not online post, not a LinkedIn post, and not a Facebook post.Think old school people - actually printing my resume, putting it in an envelope, licking a stamp, and dropping it in a red box in the middle of -20 degrees Canadian winter weather.One recruiter actually called me up because she felt I really wanted this job because I went through so much trouble.Another approach I took was to contact recruiters and hiring managers directly from LinkedIn, get their email address, and email my resume directly to their inbox.That’s the only reason I got into the company I’m working for today.I know because I asked the recruiter who hired me why he selected me.The 21st century resumeFor my last job, I still stuck to a simple relevant resume, but I took it one step further with an online resume.I advertised my resume - connelvalentine.com - on my paper resume, cover letter and thank you note.This wasn’t a substitute for my traditional resume, but it certainly helped me get noticed.Hiring managers ultimately give you the job, and they want to make sure they are hiring people with the right personality and the right cultural fit.If you felt that a fancy designed resume will get you noticed, it won’t.Because hiring managers care more about what you can do over what you can design on paper. The smart ones know that these days you can get a fancy designed resume using online tools as well.Relevant content displayed in a simple format explaining how you will solve the hiring managers problems, how you will make him/her look good, and proof that the responsibilities you had actually made a difference will get you noticed.If you want to know how I managed to get my resumé noticed by the top companies in the country, I shared my resumé template along with a short video showing how.Click here to download the resume template-Reach for your potential-

Update 10/2015: For whatever reason, this answer has picked up a lot of traction. If you're a media outlet looking to post this in some way, please connect with me or Quora first, as it's marked "not for reproduction" to maintain some of its integrity. Responses to this answer over the last few years have been really fun, if not over-dramatic. My answer to this question was published last year on Mashable, and as a result I got all types of feedback -- both negative and positive. Time has passed and I've changed some of my perspectives here and there or further explained the logic with more examples and practical application. It felt like a good time to update my answer to this question so I did! Thanks, friends. Carry on.I think this varies from recruiter to recruiter and also depends on the role for which you're applying. For one, I don't look through stacks of resumes anymore. I hate paper. I do everything online.There has been for many decades, some mysterious "wizard of oz" type viewpoint of the recruiting world that I think is somewhat misappropriated. People seem to be truly fascinated by what goes on behind the curtain, when in reality, recruiters aren't running the covert operation many think we do. Our world is a lot simpler than you think. "Does this candidate seem like they stand a chance of being a good match for this role? If yes, proceed to next step. If no, reject." Each recruiter is different, so there's no one way to answer this question. But I'll highlight briefly (actually, not so briefly) how I personally absorb a resume. I should preface this by saying that currently I primarily recruit for senior-level software engineers. In my past life I recruited for PMs, MBAs, Finance, Sales, and pretty much all of it. Everything I'm about to say broadly applies to all of these fields. I also was a campus recruiter, and you read resumes of new grads a bit differently since experience is less meaty. So for non new grads, here's how it goes in my brain:Most recent role - I'm generally trying to figure out what this person's current status is, and why/if they might even be interested in a new role. Have they only been in their last position for 3 months? If so, probably not the best time for me to reach out, right? Unless they work for Zynga, or somewhere tragic like that (said with great respect for Farmville...the app that put Facebook apps on the map). If it's an incoming resume, I'm wondering why the candidate is looking now. Are they laid off? Did they get fired? Have they only been in their role for a few months and they're possibly hating it? But most importantly, is their most recent experience relevant to the position for which I'm hiring?Company recognition - Not even gonna lie. I am a company snob. Now don't get all Judgy Mcjudgerson about my judgy-ness. Hear me out. It's not even that I think certain companies are better than others (although some most certainly are). It's purely a matter of how quickly can I assign a frame of reference. This is also known as "credibility." Oh you worked at Amazon? Then you're probably accustomed to working on projects at scale. You're at a well known crash and burn start up? You have probably worn many hats and have been running at a sprinter's pace. There are some pretty blatant if/then associations I can make simply by recognizing a company name. Because recruiters have generally been doing this job for awhile, we notice patterns and trends among candidates from certain companies and we formulate assumptions as a result. There are edge cases and our assumptions can fail us, but again, this is a resume review -- we're talking a less than 20-second analysis. Assigning frame of reference is often more difficult to do when a candidate has only worked for obscure companies I've never heard of. When I can't assign company recognition, it just means I have to read the resume a little deeper, which usually isn't an issue, unless it's poorly formatted, poorly written, uninformative and wrought with spelling errors, in which case...you might have lost my interest. See? That's tragic. Keep it tight, folks.Overall experience - Is there a career progression? Does the person have increasing levels of responsibility? Do the titles make sense? (You're a VP of Marketing for a 5 person company? Heck, I would be too.) Do the responsibilities listed therein match what I'm looking for?Keyword search - Does the person have the specific experience for the role I'm hiring for? There have been times when I command + F the crap out of resumes. Especially the long ones that are hard to follow. This isn't fool proof, but if I'm looking for an iOS Engineer, for example, and the words "iOS" or "Objective-C" don't even make a cameo appearance in someone's resume, I have to furrow my brow, read a little deeper and figure out what the heck is going on. Throughout my career supporting hiring for different profiles, I've done this on many occasions searching for things like Ruby on Rails, Mule, Javascript, and seriously, anything you can think of. Now if you're thinking you should "key word" it up on your resume, think again. Keep it authentic. And don't you dare think of putting your resume on the Internet and imbedding 250 completely irrelevant to your skill set key words at the bottom in 5pt white text so no one can see. I'm on to you. But I do think you should be vigilant to ensure that the actual important key words contained in the meat of your experience are represented on your resume.Gaps - I don't mind gaps so long as there's a sufficient explanation. Oh you took 3 years off to raise your children? Fine by me, and might I add: #respect. You tried your hand at starting your own company and failed miserably? Very impressive! Gap sufficiently explained. Whatever it is, just say it. It's the absence of an explanation that sometimes makes me wonder. Still, I understand that sometimes people feel uncomfortable sharing certain things in a professional context. If you had a gap, surely you were busy doing something during that time, right? Get creatively honest and just name that period of your life in a way that shows you acknowledge that it might raise an eyebrow.Personal online footprint -- This is not required. But if you have an online footprint, and you've bothered to include it in your resume, I'm gonna click. This includes personal domains, Quora profiles, Twitter handles, GitHub contributions, Dribbble accounts, or anything a candidate has chosen to list. Two out of three times, I almost always click through to a candidate's website or twitter account. It's one of my favorite parts of recruiting. You never know what you're gonna get.General logistics -- Location, Eligibility to work in the US -- I try to make some raw guesses here, but this is not a place of weeding someone out, more just trying to figure out their story.Overall organization -- This includes spelling, grammar, ease of use, ability to clearly present ideas. If you're in marketing and you've lost me in the first three bullets, I have concerns.Total time it takes me to do all of above: < 25 seconds*Note: I will likely later read the resume far more in depth, but only if I already know I like the candidate. It takes me way less than a minute to fully digest a resume and flag that person for follow up. I read a resume pretty thoroughly once I know I will be speaking to that person on the phone or reaching out via email. But I will not thoroughly read a resume of someone who did not pass the above categories. Maybe that makes me a heartless corporate recruiter, but I'm just keeping it real, folks. Recruiters move quickly. I'm trying to remove the barrier for people who might struggle with getting their resume properly acknowledged.Things I rarely pay as much attention to:Education -- Believe it or not, this is more an after thought for me in a resume and certainly not the most relevant element by a long shot. There have been times in my career where I could go a month reviewing hundreds of resumes and not recall looking at that section even once. Peeps, our college career center counselors lied to us. However, I will say that as a university recruiter, I almost always looked at education first. But that's because experience is often lacking with new graduates. But if you are not a new graduate, experience is king, my friends. I can think of a few exceptions where perhaps a hiring manager wanted a certain pedigree (Wharton or HBS MBA, for example), but even that's being de-prioritized less and less I find. I will also add that this changes drastically by industry and company. I currently work in tech, but I've also worked in management consulting and education is huge in consulting. I'll also add that some tech companies care more about education than others -- for example, Facebook definitely more heavily favors engineering candidates who have demonstrated core CS fundamentals by obtaining a computer science degree. Some recruiters even narrow the field and look for candidates with computer science degrees from top 25 schools. Even still, Facebook employs many engineers who never finished college. Experience rules the school.Fancy Formatting -- There are exceptions here. I say this with the caveat that I LOVE a creatively formatted resume. LOVE. However, no amount of fancy formatting is going to make up for a lack of experience. So reign it in. Also, it's important to keep in mind that if you're applying to a position online, whether it's a PDF or not, many companies' applicant tracking systems parse your resume for information and convert it to pure text as the most immediate viewing format. Recruiters don't often see how awesome your resume is. The original file is usually there for us, but many recruiters aren't clicking through to that. If you're going to do something fun with your resume, I recommend keeping it PDF and also be sure it converts to text fairly cleanly so it doesn't come through our system looking wonky. Or just email it to an actual person.Uncomfortably personal details -- In Europe for example, I've noted that it's very common to list things like family status, citizenship, and sometimes even weight and height on CVs. Often it's common to even include a photo. The US is a bit different, and by different I mean very litigious. Many employers are trying to avoid any type of discrimination, so often seeing that stuff on a resume can make recruiters feel uncomfortable. We just want to know about things that pertain to your work history. So please take your photo off your resume. If we want to see what you look like, recruiters can just stalk you on LinkedIn.Cover letters -- There is a debate on this, but I'm sorry, I don't read cover letters. I want to see the resume. Most of my recruiting colleagues agree, but I know there are still recruiters that do love and value cover letters. I find that a lot of candidates don't even send them anymore (Hallelujah). Cover letters are sort of a throwback to a different era - an era where you actually sent your resume snail mail. If you're going to send one, that puppy better be darn good. I'm of the mind that most companies that request cover letters only do so to weed out the people who haven't bothered to read the directions. But if you're in marketing or sales, etc., I can see the cover letter as a strong component of someone's potential candidacy. But seriously...ugh with cover letters.Things I wish more people would do:Bring personality into the resume -- We recruiters are staring at these missives all day long. Throw a joke in there somewhere for goodness' sake. Very few of us are curing cancer. We should lighten up a bit. Know your industry, of course. An easter egg buried in a resume may not go over well if you're in a very buttoned up industry. I think it's important to keep the work experience details as professional as possible, but trust me, there are ways to have fun with it. I love an easter egg buried in a resume. And I absolutely LIVE for creatively written LinkedIn profiles. For example, this guy is boss. I have emailed his LinkedIn profile around to dozens of friends and co-workers over the years. It's that epic. So well done and tells a great story. Best read starting from the very bottom and working your way up to the top. But he knows his industry. Probably not a good play to talk about marijuana in your LinkedIn profile if you're gunning for Director of Communications for Bank of America.Include URLs for online footprints -- Nuff said. And within your comfortability of course. I get it. We've overshared our way to a more private society, but if you're looking to stand out, write some stuff on the Internet. Contribute to open source repositories. Demonstrate some level of domain expertise/interest outside of your 9-5.List key personal projects -- I ask this in almost every phone interview I do. "What kind of stuff are you working on in your free time?" I am always inspired by this. Also shows me that you have passion for your industry.Things I wish people would stop doing:Using MS Word's resume templates -- Period. Oh my gosh. Please, let's kill them all. Especially that one with the double horizontal lines above and beneath the candidate name.Writing resumes in first person -- Exceptions made for people who do it cleverly. If no one has ever told you you're clever, then you're probably not that clever. Don't do it. It reads oddly.Allowing their resume to be a ridiculous number of pages -- Unless you are a tenured college professor nobel laureate with multiple published works, you do not need an 8+ page resume. That is not impressive; that is obnoxious. Also, I do not care that you worked at Burger King in 1988. I mean, good for you, but no; not relevant.Mixing up first person and third person or present tense and past tense -- Pick a voice, pick a tense, and then stick with it. I suggest third person and past tense. If I were you, I'd eliminate pronouns (e.g. My, I, She, He) from your resume altogether. Instead of writing "I helped increase overall sales by 300% by breeding rabbits in my garage," Simply eliminate the "I" in that sentence. So, "Helped increase overall sales...blah blah blah." Go through your resume and remove all the pronouns and rewrite the sentence to make it sound like a bullet point. By "past tense" I mean that your resume should always be voiced from the perspective of something you already did -- not something you're currently doing. So even if you're in your current position, you should still list those accomplishments in the past tense.Listing an objective at the top of the resume -- Dude, seriously? This isn't 1992.Mailing, faxing, or hand-delivering paper resumes -- Immediate disqualification. Do not pass go. Go straight to jail. While I have your attention though, let's camp out on that last point for a moment: Hand-delivering paper resumes. Look, I get it. People are trying to stand out. It can be tough out there. And I completely respect the hustle. But in 2015, HR professionals are swamped, anxious, and jumpy. When a random stranger shows up unannounced asking to speak to someone in HR or recruiting, we're wondering if you have a gun and a vendetta, and we've probably alerted security. Seriously. It's really creepy. It's also not really how the corporate world works any more, and oftentimes it can place an undue burden on people to rearrange their schedule to make time to talk to you...which makes them grumpy...which doesn't exactly put you in a good spot as a potential candidate. So seriously, folks. Think long and hard before you decide to randomly show up at a company's headquarters with your resume. It might have a huge pay off, but it probably won't.Sending resumes addressed to the CEO that end up on some random recruiter's desk unopened - This is a gross generalization here and exceptions are made for smaller companies, but um, CEOs don't often read resumes -- not the first pass. Also see above re: paper resumes. P.S. We sometimes laugh at people who do this. (All of the above does not apply if you're Tristan Walker or exude ridiculous amounts of awesomeness)Exaggerating titles and responsibilities -- Eventually the truth comes out.There you have it. Thirty seconds in the brain of one lowly recruiter. I hope this helps make someone better or more effective in their job search. If you take issue with anything I've said here, you're well within your right. Recruiters are paid to be judgmental sharp shooters. We fail often and we miss out on really good candidates. This is one recruiter's opinion. I am nothing if not honest.Happy hunting.

This approach will help you think of a solid startup idea.It is broken into 5 steps to facilitate progress through a system that in total should take about 30-40 hours to complete over a week or two, if you do it all.Add rigor and discipline to your brainstorming and idea evaluation process:Build lists of potential customer types and business or pricing models.Evaluate the opportunities where these lists overlap.Then, exit your ivory tower and evaluate the top ideas with real potential users, customers, or suppliers.This will improve your likelihood of success and waste less time down the road, even if you pivot from your original idea.Preface: There certainly are simpler answers like, “pick an area that is trending”, “look for a large market that hasn’t changed in 10 years”, or “convert your hobby into a business”. Unfortunately those aren’t particularly helpful, and since this question comes up often in discussions, I wanted to get my thoughts down in a more comprehensive way. I’m sure Quora will have some good feedback for me :)Also, while this answer covers the ideation part of the journey, keep in mind that implementing the idea is the hard part.Three primary paths to a new business idea1. The spontaneous idea: It hits you when you’re in the shower, driving in your car, talking with friends, or doodling during a meeting. The dots suddenly connect in a new way and you have an epiphany...your sudden insight is surprising and exciting, and the value of this new idea seems obvious. You can’t believe nobody else has thought of it before!So you go online and poke around...and...most of the time it turns out that someone has thought of it before. But, you still might be able to do it better...so you keep thinking about it and a day passes, and you start to realize some problems. You share it with a few trusted friends and get feedback about a lot of things you hadn’t thought of yet (e.g., nobody pays for it, it’s a tiny market, etc.). It could turn out to be a great idea, but you don’t know, you have a good job, and it is uncharted territory...so you let the dream slowly die away. Cheer up, that was probably the right decision.2. The insider idea: Maybe you’ve spent the last 7 years building enterprise software for airlines and you’ve noticed some voids in the product stack or issues with how your company brings it to market. You point these deficiencies out to your bosses, but there are other company priorities and nothing changes. Or, say your company pays vendors a lot of money to do some work, but nobody ever seems happy with the results....and you see a way to do it better for less. Or, maybe you witnessed your company kill an amazing new product or feature not because testing didn’t show user interest, but for political or organizational reasons.You see an opportunity to do it on your own, so you start moonlighting on a solution. You gather more specific information, talk to trusted co-workers and industry contacts, and determine the viability of solving the problem. The good thing is, you’re already knowledgeable and well positioned/networked in the business space...so good luck to you!3. The deliberate idea: In this case, you aren’t starting with a business idea. Instead, you’re starting with a desire to create a new business and become an entrepreneur. You may be ready to quit your job and go for it whole-hog, or just start it on the side of your desk...but you’re looking for the right business idea to pursue (which could be a business related to your work environment or industry, as in #2).While the first two paths may happen unintentionally, the third is for people who know they want to start a company, but don't yet have their idea. If you fall into the third group, then this answer is for you.#3 The Deliberate IdeaIdeation is fun and freeing, but it is the easy part of the process. Execution of your idea separates the wheat from the chaff and is where most people fail. That said, coming up with the right idea will improve your odds of successful execution. This system will help you do that well.Step 1 - Decide what is your primary motivation or personal goal for starting this (1 hour)For example, do you want a:Fun or hobby based business (e.g., making bracelets to sell on Etsy (product))Part-time lifestyle business that could become full time (e.g., running a wine-investment club)Full-time startup hoping for acquisition exit in 3-5 years (e.g., It’s like Airbnb (product) for fish, get it?)Large, cash-flow positive business (e.g., B2B furniture import and delivery business)Path to industry credibility and networking over financial gain (e.g., scriptwriting peer-training exchange for aspiring comedy writers)Create a new spreadsheet and write down your goal in the first tab. It may seem like overkill now, but if you take a break from this project you’ll want to be able to have it as a frame of reference when picking it back up.Step 2 - Frame the problem (2 hours)If you try to just write down a list of ideas from scratch, you’ll probably be underwhelmed with the results. You’ll likely hit a block after a handful of ideas, and what you come up with will be based on your predispositions...i.e., if you are a gamer, you’ll have ideas for games. If you work in cloud computing, you’ll have ideas for new approaches, etc. This isn’t a bad thing, but it is limiting.Instead, make a deliberate effort to facilitate your own brainstorming.In the spreadsheet you created in step 1, create a new sheet and type out a list of 15-20 different categories of customer/audience types in the first column. Don’t start with the usual demographic descriptions like, “18-35 year olds in urban environments making over $100k per year”. Instead, use descriptive phrases that represent specific groups of consumers and/or businesses with unique challenges and needs. These tend to be easier to conceptualize so they are more useful and helpful for generating ideas.Start with some that relate to your personal interests, hobbies, experience or professional network, but don't limit yourself to them. Some examples include retail insurance agents, cyclical dieters, ex-pats in Asia, news junkies, people that eat out 3+ times per week, new college grads, stay-at-home mothers, winemakers, startup founders raising money, youth sports teams, companies at trade shows, wedding planners, gamers, health nuts, software development agencies, etc. If you’re having trouble coming up with enough, broaden to specific industries, e.g., public transportation, dating, real estate, etc. If you’re going after a specific geography, call it out (e.g., ex-pats in Asia).Next, along the first row of your spreadsheet, type the business or pricing models (i.e., the type of business) that you could apply to these customers/audiences. There’s no exact right or wrong approach, and I’m using the term “business model” very liberally here. Not all models will apply to each group and some overlap is okay. Remember, you’re doing this to help you brainstorm and compare new business ideas, not to become an expert on business models.For example, subscriptions, product bundling, risk management/insurance, auctions, resale/classifieds, peer-to-peer exchanges, outsourcing non-core functions, freemium, advertising-supported content, new product development, after-sale care, daily deals (discounted pre-sale), collaborative consumption (think AirBnB), rapid evaluation/matching (e.g., Tinder), sales channel innovation, lead generation and referrals, marketplace, brokerage, BI/CI solutions, community, etc. (more here: TechCrunch business models)Step 3 - Generate ideas (4-6 hours)Your spreadsheet is now a grid with customer/audience types down the side and business/pricing models across the top. Each box where the two lists overlap is a place to brainstorm ideas. Go through each square in this grid. You can dismiss many of the boxes in a few seconds (e.g., Business Intelligence for stay-at-home moms?), but it is worth giving each consideration as you’ll inevitably come up with ideas you didn’t expect.The easiest way to do this is go column by column. Pick a business or pricing model, think of a few existing businesses that use it, and spend 5 minutes reading about them to get your head into that space. Then, apply it to each potential customer or audience group: how could it fit? What are their priorities, what gets in their way, where are they wasting time or money, what do they depend upon? Browse discussion forums where they participate or are discussed. See what they care about, what people complain about. Search online for other companies that already compete to offer them products and services. What are they?Your pass through the first column will take the most time, because you're learning about each of the 15-20 customer types as you go. It speeds up after that.Each time you come up with a keeper, type it into the corresponding box. For example, providing after-sale customer management for retail insurance agents? Or, a debt auction business for startups looking to raise seed funding? Type it in.Note: You may have 2+ ideas in a box. To add a new line inside of a cell type Alt-Enter for Excel on PC, Option-Command-Enter for Excel on Mac, Ctrl-Enter for Google Docs on MacTry to come up with at least 6 solid ideas. Then, create another tab in your spreadsheet and list all of your ideas there. In addition to writing down the ideas themselves, you should state the goal, audience(s), and model(s) for each one. These will change over time, but it is good to start grounded with something you can work-back towards.Step 4 - Evaluate ideas and narrow it down (3 hours)The next step is to evaluate your list of 6+ ideas against a set of criteria that will help you narrow down to the most promising three. For example:Heat in this space: E.g., Some answers on QuoraYour experience and connections: Do you have experience in this industry or with similar businesses? Are you well connected with friends or family that operate in this space? Any advantages, or disadvantages?Alignment with goals: How well does this align to your original goal? Are the upfront capital costs compatible with the level of investment you want to make in this business?Market opportunity: How big is this market and how unique or differentiated is your approach? Consider competition here, but don’t be discouraged by the presence of competition. It is validation that the space is interesting. Also, there are plenty of companies have come along and disrupted markets that others had written off as already solved, like:Google ... after Altavista, Metacrawler, Lycos, etc.Facebook ... after Friendster, MySpaceUber ... after Yellow cab, black car services, etc.Gmail ... after AOL, Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc.iPhone ... after Blackberry, Palm, Windows MobileFlipboard, Wavii, Zite, Pulse, Prismatic, etc. ... after Yahoo!, AOL, MSN, CNNYou probably don’t have time to really deep-dive on 10 ideas, so getting this narrowed down is both science and art. What does your gut tell you, what would be fun, where are you most comfortable and confident?OPTIONAL STEP: To add more science try quantifying some of these criteria.To do this, add a column to the Ideas tab, one for each criterion. Then, for each new column score your ideas from 1-5, with 5 being the best. So, for “Alignment with my goal”, a 5 means it aligns perfectly, and a 1 means it doesn’t align at all (e.g., your goal is to create a fun hobby business, but the idea is to sell offshore development services to technology companies in the US).Don’t worry if you aren’t sure whether something is a 3 or a 4, just go with your gut or do 5 minutes of online research. Keep moving forward, don't get stuck here bogged down in the weeds.When you’re finished, add up the scores and sort your list by the sum of these scores. In theory, the higher the score, the more interesting the idea should be to you.When you’re done evaluating your ideas run them by a couple of trusted friends, and narrow it down to the three that seem most promising. If you do the optional scoring step, don’t feel like you must pick the three that scored highest.Note - we could have used these criteria earlier in step 2 to narrow down the list of audiences and business/pricing models, but that would have limited the creative process too far upstream (i.e., before the brainstorming process), so I suggest waiting.Step 5 - Deep dive on those 3 ideas (20-30 hours over a week or two)Congratulations, you have come up with 3 solid ideas! Now it’s time to step out of your ivory tower and start getting street-level information and feedback. There are three basic steps for doing this (i.e., 5_a, _b, and _c) that are general enough to apply to most types of ideas.A quick aside: at this point people ask, "If I share my idea with a lot of people, won't someone steal it?" The answer is possibly, but unlikely. As previously mentioned, there are a lot of startup ideas but few people with the time, energy, or know-how to implement them. The benefits of getting good feedback early on outweigh the risk that someone will steal it. So, don't tell people that won't benefit you, and avoid telling direct competitors that are in a position to do it themselves, or to block you from doing it, but generally don't worry. Related questions / blog posts:Will a VC or Angel steal my idea?How can I be sure people won't steal my idea during a pitch?Will anyone steal my startup idea?Why you shouldn’t keep your startup idea secret5_a. Get smart(er) (6-8 hours)You will be able to evaluate and refine your ideas 10x faster by engaging in discussions with real potential customers, users, and partners. But, if you go into these unprepared you’ll wind up asking the wrong questions, sounding out of place, and wasting your opportunity and their time.So, before you invest in surveys, coffee shop chats, or informational meetings, you need to get up to speed on the basics of the industry you are targeting. If you gave yourself a 5 in the “Experience and connections” category in Step 4, you can skip this. If not, invest 2-3 hours per idea.Note - throughout this process you should take detailed notes. Create a new tab for each of your ideas, or an entirely new document; doesn’t really matter as long as you can write stuff down. Track who you've spoken with, emailed, feedback, etc. Trust me, you will be glad that you wrote this all down.This will probably take a couple of days. At minimum I would:Call up or email savvy friends and family to get their thoughts (LinkedIn is a great tool for this).Give them the 10,000 foot view of your idea and ask for their opinion. (Take good notes on or right after the call; do not trust your memory for this.)Ask them what they think is the biggest problem with it, otherwise they might just say nice things.If they’re in your industry then ask if they know of other companies in your space, what they think is broken, etc.Ask them who they would speak with if they had your idea. Ask if you can get informational interviews with those people.Talk to potential investors if possibleThey don’t have to be the people that will actually invest in your business, but at this step ideally you have a personal relationship with them. Position your conversation as looking for advice to make a decision, not their money.Anyone you know that does angel investing, VC, M&A, etc., will have a trained perspective.Do lots of online research. For example:Find out who competes in this space, and add them to your spreadsheet.Read their websites, watch their videos, and search for them together, e.g., “Windows AND Android AND iPhone”. These search queries surface articles and blog posts that analyze the broader industry, offering helpful perspective and discovery of competitors you missed. E.g., “Windows, Android and iPhone versus Blackberry”.Browse on Wikipedia to learn industry vocabulary and organization.Search Quora for questions about the industry or these competitors.Determine external dependenciesYou may need data. Is it available free or paid, or will you have to mine it yourself, etc.?Do you need any particular physical materials, machinery, etc. that are hard to come by?Will you require any permits or government approvals?Will you need to hire any specialists people that are particularly difficult to find and recruit?Expensive equipment?Will you need to raise a significant amount of outside funding just to get started b/c there are high capital costs?Etc.Now you are smart enough to have the intelligent conversations with people in your prospective industries, and you probably have also improved and refined your ideas. Woohoo, you’re getting closer to “the one”.At this point a lot of people would pick something and invest time in “creating” their business. I.e., set up a corporation, pick a name, secure a domain, design a logo, print business cards, figure out their title, etc. While these things feel like progress towards a “real company”, they are an unnecessary distraction at this point. It is much wiser to spend that energy on validation of your idea, like testing with real customers, meeting competitors, mocking up prototypes, etc.5_b. Talk to potential customers, competitors, and industry partners you don’t know personally (5-10 hours)Before you pour your heart and soul into a new venture, you should validate it outside of your friends and family circle. Is this solving a real issue for potential users or customers? Would they be willing to pay for it...or do businesses even have budget for what you’re offering? Again, the mechanics of this depend on the type of business idea that you have (e.g., starting a sandwich shop vs. office supply delivery vs. peer-to-peer insurance), but here are some general approaches that I would recommend.Run an online surveyQuick way to get a relatively large sample of answers from your target customers or audience.There are probably others, but Google Surveys is drop-dead simple to use and it allows you to easily limit responses to your target (e.g., people that buy life insurance).It’ll cost you a couple hundred bucks per survey. A cheap alternative is to post the concept on a discussion forum or Quora to get feedback.Talk with your potential customers/audienceIf you’re targeting consumers, figure out where they spend time and go there to ask them questions (e.g., certain neighborhoods or coffee shops, concerts, sporting events, conventions, etc.). If you end up in a coffee shop, print a sign for the back of your laptop that says “Your feedback on my idea for a free latte”!If you’re targeting B2C businesses, approach them as a customer, and ask them some questions. Buy something if they sell retail.If you’re targeting B2B businesses, email them or go to conferences that they attend, etc. Try to get an informational interview based on the premise that you’re working to improve the industry and do something valuable for them, so you need their expertise and advice. People like it when others ask for their ‘expertise’.Talk with suppliersThis is relatively easy, since you are a potential buyer and they will want your business.In a previous step you identified the external dependencies you’ll want to take, i.e., what you should buy vs. build, and some possible vendors. Get meetings with them.You need to verify your assumptions, and while a lot of the details will be available on their website, information about pricing, access restrictions, etc., is often not, so you’ll want to email or call them to get details.Try to speak to more than 1 provider for each item so you can compare prices and look for differences or similarities, which will tell you a lot about the industry.OPTIONAL - Start selling before you have anything to sellSome people call this doing a “smokescreen test”, and the mechanics of it really depend on the business idea. In many cases, it actually won’t be practical to do this until you are working on your final idea.B2C: If you’re targeting consumers you can do this via the Google or Facebook ad platforms.B2B: If businesses, then send a bunch of emails to potential customers (you can find them online) with a proposed offer and price...vary the price and offer details and keep track of how people respond (hopefully some do). see if you can get on the phone with one or two of them. Learn what questions they ask, what they push back on, if the price seems reasonable. If someone wants what you’re selling, then you may have your first customer if you can deliver something quickly (you won’t be the first to sell something before you own it...remember Bill Gates and IBM (company))5_c. Write abbreviated business plans (7-10 hours)We’ve spent a lot of time working on the individual components of each idea, and now it is time to step back and see the big picture. Bring your thinking and research together into a brief business plan for each idea that still appears to be worth pursuing. If it is obvious from the previous steps that that an idea isn’t going to work, drop it.Here’s a suggested outline. Try to limit it to be 2-3 pages, and no more than 3 hours per idea:Page 1One-line description of your idea:[Company] will <do, make, or provide> for <target audience or customer> so that <the value/outcome you bring>.Example: Lewis Industries will develop customer management software for automotive dealerships so that they can increase loyalty post-sale and sell more services and upgrades to consumers that buy vehicles.Description of your products and services: 150 word description of the problems you are addressing and the scenarios you will focus on first.Page 2How and when you monetize: Will you start as a free service for everyone, and hope to monetize later through premium offerings (freemium) or advertising (ad-supported)? Or, will you start charging immediately, or never? You won’t know for sure, but give your best guess.Distribution model: How will potential customers or users discover you? What marketing and/or partner channels do you plan to use?External dependencies: For what core things will you rely on others to provide, e.g., A database of all vehicle makes and models, and option packages since 1970? You should have this list from previous steps, and don’t worry about generic things (e.g., office space).Page 3Estimated cost to reach your Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Just try to get in the ballpark here. The main reason to figure this out during the ideation stage is that it will impact how you approach starting the business, which may or may not align with your goals. I.e., if you’re planning to build a Zipcar for trucks and need to raise $2 million for the vehicles, then you probably can’t do it as a lifestyle business off the side of your desk.What are the major external dependencies and how much will they cost (e.g., $20,000 for the automotive database)How much development and design do you need to do for this idea, any large capital costs (e.g., a fleet of trucks)?Here are some places to learn how to estimate these costs: Estimating startup costs for a new businesses (StartupNation), How to estimate the cost of starting a business from scratch (United States SBA), Estimate startup costs (Entrepreneur)Summary of idea’s strengths and weaknesses (1-2 sentences for each)Research: What did you learn from your survey, calls, emails and online research that supports or challenges this idea? E.g., Positive if 67% of people surveyed say they will pay $10 for this, less so if 4 of the 5 companies you spoke with have no interest in what you’re proposing.Industry/macro trends: Will you have a tailwind or a headwind doing this? List out the specifics (e.g., My largest customer, retirees, is estimate to grow at 10% per year for the next 20 years.)Your knowledge and connections: You'll have a good sense for this, but write it down anyways. E.g., I have spent 4 years working on software for this industry, and x, y, and z from college are potential buyers.Risks: Are you taking dependencies where the solution isn’t yet clear? How competitive is the market, and what advantages do competitors have...or, is competition not a deterrent for x reason?You could easily increase the scope of this business plan by an order of magnitude, and there are a dozen templates for this (Writing a Business Plan) or approaches to analyzing your ideas (e.g., SWOT analysis). The important thing is that you’re being honest and self-critical, because ultimately you are the one taking the risk.Step 6 - Pick the best idea and get startedIf after all of this digging you are still feeling really good about one of these ideas, then go for it...this is where the real work begins. You’re going to need to think about financing, hiring, networking, and business operations in addition to the fun part of actually building your product or service.That is for another post! In the meantime, here are some resources to help you on your way:First I'd sit back and read...Startups are roller-coasters that often end in failure...make sure that you know what you're getting yourself into! Check out Mashable’s post on Why 90% of Startups Fail, David Lee's on Why I Never Started My Own Company, and Dave McClure's slides and video about “Why not to do a startup”.Now, if you still want to do this, read Paul Graham 's essay on How to start a startup (he also has an interesting view on startup ideas)Next, grab a drink and read Quora's take on what first timers often miss - What first time entrepreneurs are blind toThen, Jimmy Wales' answer to how to contact him about a startup idea...it applies broadly to how you should contact a potential advisor or investor about their startup.Lastly, go up-vote something Ashton Kutcher wrote on Quora and ask Mark Zuckerberg a question that he won't answer...Congrats! You're half-way to a great startup (scene story for your friends). :-)Startup advice and storiesQuora questions - What is the hardest part about staring a company, Common mistakes made when starting a tech company, Top five things to remember whens starting a companyJames Altucher, TechCrunch - Should you start a company?Jason Goldberg, Betashop - 13 things you must do every week as a startup CEOSeth Sternberg, Meebo co-founder (acquired by Google since this article) - From nothing to something. How to get there.Ben Horowitz vs Fred Wilson - Ben posts (case for fat startup), Fred rebuts (fat not healthy), Ben rebuts (revenge of fat guy)Neil Patel, Geekwire - Wish I would have known before starting my own businessDane Carlson - 20 things not to do before starting a business (I agree with most of this, but not #1 if you can afford it)Scott Weiss, TechCrunch - The path to starting a startupJames Altucher, TechCrunch - What you can learn from Woody AllenErick Schonfeld (2006), 5 ways to start a company (without quitting your day job)ChecklistsRyan Roberts, Startup Lawyer - If I launched a startup (great cheat sheet)Quora - How do you start a companyForbes - 38 things to do when starting a business (non-tech)Fiverr (marketplace) - Startup checklist (non-tech, and website is a little kitschy with all the dashes, stars, and arrows in the text)Finance and LegalQuora - What questions do entrepreneurs want to ask venture investors most but are afraid to askUser-10887637379381104900 - So you want to raise seed capitalFred Wilson, AVC - Financing options for startups, Financing options: convertible debt (likely way you will raise your first round of angel/seed money)Ryan Roberts, Startup Lawyer - How convertile debt works, What type of entity should I form, What does a series A term sheet look likeMartin Kleppmann - Valuation caps on convertible notes explained with graphsOrrick - Startup toolkitBrad Feld, Foundry Group (venture capital firm) - Term sheet series wrap upHiringBabak Nivi, Venture Hacks - What does an employee offer letter look like, Questions recruits might ask Part I, Part IIRobert Scoble, Quora - How to avoid hiring the wrong people for your startupElad Gil, Elad blog - Hiring for cultural fitBlogs by entrepreneurs:Jason Goldberg - BetashopDanielle Morrill - Danielle Morrill’s blogMarco Arment - Marco.orgBen Milne - Ben Milne’s blogKate Kendall - Kate Kendall’s blogGuy Kawasaki - How to change the worldSeth Godin - Seth Godin’s blogSriram Krishnan - Sriram Krishnan’s blogPenelope Trunk - Penelope Trunk’s blogScott Adams - Dilbert blogNeil Patel - Quick SproutEric Ries - Startup Lessons LearnedSteve Blank - Steve Blank’s blogDharmesh Shah - OnStartupsQuora - Other startup founder blogsBlogs by VCs:Brad Feld (Foundry Group) - FeldThoughtsFred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) - AVCDave McClure (500 Startups) - Master of 500 hatsPaul Graham (Y Combinator +) - Paul Graham EssaysDavid Lee (SV Angel) - dasleeUser-10887637379381104900 (Andreessen Horowitz) - Chris Dixon’s blogJeff Bussgang (Flybridge Capital Partners) - Seeing Both SidesBen Horowitz (Andreessen Horowitz) - Ben’s blogJosh Kopelman (First Round Capital) - Redeye VCMike Hirshland (Resolute.VC, formerly Polaris Ventures) - VCMike’s BlogDavid Cowan (Bessemer Venture Partners) - Who has time for thisJalak Jobanputra (FuturePerfect Ventures) - The barefoot VCHoward Morgan (First Round Capital) - Way too ealryGreg Gottesman (Madrona Venture Partners) - Stark Raving VCDavid Skok (Matrix Partners) - For entrepreneursMark Suster (GRP Partners) - Both Sides of the TableOther blogsJared O'Toole and Matt Wilson - Under 30 CEOAnita Campbell - Small Business TrendsAndrew Chen - Andrew Chen’s blogCarson McComas, Work Happy blog for entrepreneursYoung Entrepreneur BlogHarvard Business Review Blog NetworkBusiness PunditQuora entrepreneurs to follow (there are a lot of ‘must follow’ lists of entrepreneurs on Quora, of which many aren’t very active. These people are)Wikipedia, Jimmy WalesCraigslist, Craig NewmarkBlippy and Adbrite, Philip KaplanVontu & Pipewise, Michael WolfeQuora & Facebook, Adam D'AngeloFriendster, Jonathan AbramsInstagram, Kevin SystromFoursquare, Dennis CrowleyPath, Dave Morin500 Startups, Dave McClureFacebook, Dustin MoskovitzMahalo, LAUNCH, & Weblogs, Jason CalacanisPayPal, David SacksEchoSign, Jason M. LemkinWavii, Adrian AounOther people’s listsRyan Spoon, Polaris Ventures - list of Quora threads for startupsOther resources:SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration)StartupNation (Source for Small Business Advice)Notes: I tried to use mostly plain-speak when writing this. There are a lot of opinions on vocabulary and the definition of business models, business plans, etc., so if you’re hung up on those details write your thoughts in the comments, but keep in mind that the nuances are less important than the spirit of applying some rigor to picking an idea.